There’s no substitute for reading Exploring and Teaching Medieval History – an introduction by Ian Dawson of course. However, knowing how we all need things easily to hand, Henry Walton (@HenryWalton5), Head of Humanities @manorceacademy, has extracted some of the websites and texts it mentions and added others into one handy list. He’s kindly shared it with us…

www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/home.html Gatehouse: The comprehensive online gazetteer and bibliography of the castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man

http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/ its long-term goal is to identify all of the landholders named in Domesday Book, thus laying empirical foundations for a book on landed society in 1066 and the impact of the Norman conquest upon it.

There is debate among historians as to how aware the westerners were of this as an opportunity to march into a power vacuum, but there is no doubt that it assisted them. An accessible article was published in History Today, 67 issue 3, March 2017: Nicholas Morton, ‘Was the First Crusade Really War Against Islam?’ At the time of writing it was available online: http://www.historytoday.com/nicholas-morton/was-firstcrusade-really-war-against-islam

The exception to this hindsight bias is a handful of letters written during the crusade. These are invaluable, but a medieval letter sent by one high-born noble or cleric to another was very different from a modern letter. For a start it wasn’t private, it was more like an official report to be delivered publicly. It was carried by a courier and might well fall into enemy hands, so no sensitive information could be included (though it might be conveyed orally by the courier). Look for exaggerations or obvious attempts to reassure. Stephen of Blois’ letter to his wife Adela from Antioch is a good place to start: http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1stcrusade2.html

For secondary sources, follow the links at deremilitari.org for (a rather random selection of) articles. For biographies of modern historians of the crusades, see www.crusaderstudies.org.uk (The site is ‘under development’ but has not recently been updated.)

www.Agincourt600.com The site originally created for the 600th anniversary. Includes a week-by-week account of preparations from the Parliament of November 1414 to the king’s entry to London on 23 November 1415.

www.medievalsoldier.org Includes all names found on the muster and retinue rolls and sick lists for the campaign, in a database of English armies from 1369 to 1453, as well as details on all of the indentees of 1415 and information on the French army in an Agincourt 600 section.

The Luttrell Psalter film brings to life scenes from the Psalter and exemplifies a wide range of feelings and attitudes. The feeling of seeing the Psalter brought to life is enhanced by the fact that it has music but no voices as the soundtrack. See: www.luttrellpsalter.org.uk/

The history of emotions is now a flourishing field of study with Queen Mary, University of London, for example, hosting a now well-established Centre for the History of the Emotions. See: https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/emotions/

The Historical Association is committed to supporting teachers’ historical knowledge. There are a vast range of resources to help at www.history.org.uk. Why not sign up for an HA Fellowship programme for Rolls Royce CPD with academic historians and other history teachers? See the website for details!